Enamelware from Republican Period to Mao

By madamemao, Nov 25 2019 04:04AM

In the Mao Period enamel was ubiquitous. The enamel cup bore Mao slogans or politically referencing images, or simply the name of your work unit with perhaps your worker number so you could use your own cup. Enamel basins were in everybody's home for washing faces and clothes and enamel spoons served out rice and congee. Shanghai and Pudong was home to many enamelware factories and the production process was neither simple nor quick, but required skill, patience and artistic content. All of those factories have been replaced, making enamelware a dying product. Madame Mao's Dowry made it's own line of cups and trays, some of which found their way to the shelves of the British Museum and the V&A in London as examples of Chinese Design.

This Christmas we bring you, instead, a collection of Mao Period and Republican Period enamelware, original, used and fascinating. On their face these pieces trace a history of design that is broad and deep, incorporating many styles and influences from bird anf flower paintings to modernism to propaganda.